Wow! What an amazing day was yesterday! Saw/heard some incredible music yesterday ... what amazing music talent in the Atlantic provinces! We heard a wide variety of artists performing everything from Acadian folk music to hip-hop to traditional and modern Celtic to rap to rock. And of course, the blues.

What blew me away was how many Bad Habits fans made the trip over to support the band at their two showcases yesterday ... one die hard fan has flown in from Calgary for the weekend

And yes, they are wowing Haligonians so far

Looking forward to another jam packed day full of wonderful music. This evening should be a great night of Island music at the Island Showcase with the best that PEI has to offer!

It was a fantastic 4 days over in Halifax. We got to see so much talent in such a wide variety of genres. We burned the candle at both ends the whole time we were there (still trying to catch up with sleep) but we were slackers copared to most of the musicians.

For example, Bad Habits had 7 performances in three days along with radio, television and magazine interviews in between. And they had to turn down at least 5 other requests to perform.

Here are some pics that were taken over those three days ...

After a sound check at the Waterfront Warehouse for their "Breakout Artists Showcase" that evening, they had to run over for a live interview on Q104.

Then back to Waterfront Warehouse for their showcase performance.

Then a quick trip over to the Delta for a sound check for their Molson Late Night Showcase. They were able to rest for a couple of hours before hitting the stage again to cap a 21 hour day on Thursday.

On Friday, they were up before noon and on the go, first to Eastlink for a television interview (they left a copy of their album and before long it was receiving constant play on the ECMA broadcasts ... so cool to return to the hotel room to change or whatever, turn on the TV and hear Bad Habits as the background music for their event bulletin board and award winners recaps!) then over to Guff Magazine for an interview and to entertain the staff.

After that, there was a sound check at Durty Nelly's for the Island Showcase later that night. They were then able to decompress for a few hours and take in some performances of many of their friends before taking the stage at Durty Nelly's

They started Saturday with an interview and performance for ECMA radio in the lobby of the Delta

Then they headed for the Bearly's Blues And Roots Showcase where they would put on a nearly 4.5 hour long performance (most showcases at the ECMA's are 20 to 30 minutes in length) with only two 10 minute breaks.

Now, if you are fresh from receiving your ECMA award for your album (Todd MacLean on the left) or your ECMA Stomping Tom Connors Lifetime Achievement Award is still cooling down (Jon Matthews at the mic), where do you go? You head to Bearly's to jam with Bad Habits!

Also showing up at Bearly's to jam ... Essential Blues' Annette Drapeau

Also Chris Smith of the Rock/Funk band Seventh Stone ...

Then Dan Rowswell of the PEI Symphony and the PEI Jazz Ensemble ...

Now you would think that after their acoustic radio show followed by a high energy 4.5 hour show, they would be packing up for the day. Nope, they rushed back to the penthouse ballroom of the Delta to perform acoustically at the ECMA Members' Lounge, a special request made earlier in the day.

Do you remember entering the gates of the Bill Lynch exhibition as a child? The experiences, thrills and excitement that awaited you were worth all of those weeks of anticipation. With that almighty, all access bracelet on your wrist the largest question was which ride to experience first? Well that same excitement was what I felt driving into Halifax and picking up my all access artist past last Thursday. All of the effort put into practicing our music, picking the songs that could best represent us for those short 20 minute sets. We also ramped up our social media presence, took new photos, booked shows and interviews to ensure we took full advantage of every last minute. We wanted to have a plan.

Now most sensible thrill seekers start out with a comfortable base ride such as the "Scrambler" to get their bearings. Not the case for Bad Habits, we arrived and took on the "Zipper!" We performed seven times over three days with shows ranging from one song to a full on four hour show. There were so many musical highlights for us. We were honored to be chosen as one of only 12 Atlantic Provinces artists to play the RBC Breakout Artist stage. Excited to feel the buzz around town on our band when we read the tweet from ECMA with a picture of our singer Amanda Jackson during our Island Sessions Showcase with the caption: "The voice on this woman, unreal! Grooving packed crowd". We were so proud to be part of the Music PEI showcases hosted at Durty Nelly's. It honestly felt like we were starting to belong to this scene now. That Music PEI showcase was intense. I'm talking riding the "Gravitron" before it starts to slow down intense! Picture this; the room is packed with eager music lovers. An extra 100 people are standing outside in the cold waiting to get in. Paper Lions just finished an amazing set. Your adrenaline is pumping. Take a deep breath and go! First song, our first single "How about you?" sets the tone with its thunderous intro. Then we start "Six good reasons" and notice the stage lights suddenly go dark and our singer Amanda's mic is no longer working. What we did next set the pace for the rest of this show and our weekend. We seamlessly jammed on the tune, trading solos as our heroic stage techs circled the stage and resolved the issue in time for us to still play the song. The audience realizing what had occurred was really on our side now. Bad Habits tambourines started to shake and fill the room. Dale McKie and Jason Condon ran out into to audience and stood on a table top trading one guitar back and forth, and playing behind their heads. From my view behind the drums all I could see past the bright stage were the growing number of camera phones flashes. We had the crowd in the palm of our hand now, singing with us, cheering us along. In that moment, that room of people were all on this exhilarating ride with us!

We made every effort to take in as many of these "rides" as we could over the weekend. We made a lot of connections that will hopefully prove to be the keys to unlock the doors of future opportunities. We made many new fans and friends. Bad Habits were treated incredibly well by the ECMA and Music PEI teams, all of the technicians, and especially the army of volunteers. We just couldn't thank these volunteers enough so every one that we met we gave a copy of our album with gratitude and a hand shake. A few lucky drivers even received some slices from pizza corner!

As the exciting whirlwind of the week came to a close we drove out of Halifax feeling very proud of our performances and hope that we represented PEI well. Of course we were also saddened that the ECMAs had ended for another year. Much like that depressing feeling of “Old Home week” coming to a close so has our first ECMA experience. That being said the 2014 ECMAs will be held in our own back yard, Charlottetown! We have some time to prepare, for next year we will take on all those scary "Big Kid" rides with just a bit more experience!

—Liam Kearney is the drummer & booking agent for Bad Habits, Music PEI's winner of the New Artist award for 2013.